RURA approves Tigo Rwanda acquisition by Airtel

Bharti Airtel, a leading global telecommunications services provider with operations in 16 countries across Asia and Africa, has announced that it has received approval from the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA) for the acquisition of Tigo Rwanda Limited, a subsidiary of Millicom International Cellular S.A.

The merged entity will have the largest customer base in Rwanda with 5.9 million subscribers. The combined networks of the two companies will serve customers with voice/ data services, global roaming and mobile banking services. It will also have Rwanda’s largest sales and distribution network.

The merger will result in the only negative ebitda OpCo joining other 13 positive ebitda OpCos in Africa.

On completion, the acquisition will undergo seamless integration, both on the customer as well as the network side and further strengthen Airtel’s market position in Rwanda.

Airtel thanked the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA) for its support during the merger process.

With a presence in 14 countries across Africa, Airtel is one of the largest telecom service providers on the continent in terms of geographical reach, and had close to 84 million customers at the end of quarter ended December 30, 2017. Globally, Airtel is ranked as the third largest mobile services provider in terms of customer base.